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dc.contributor.authorWaite, Michael L
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-09 18:42:30 (GMT)
dc.date.available2016-06-09 18:42:30 (GMT)
dc.date.issued2016-03
dc.identifier.issn0027-0644
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-15-0316.1
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/10538
dc.description© Copyright 2016 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (https://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyrights@ametsoc.org.en
dc.description.abstractMany high-resolution atmospheric models can reproduce the qualitative shape of the atmospheric kinetic energy spectrum, which has a power-law slope of −3 at large horizontal scales that shallows to approximately −5/3 in the mesoscale. This paper investigates the possible dependence of model energy spectra on the vertical grid resolution. Idealized simulations forced by relaxation to a baroclinically unstable jet are performed for a wide range of vertical grid spacings Δz. Energy spectra are converged for Δz 200 m but are very sensitive to resolution with 500 m ≤ Δz ≤ 2 km. The nature of this sensitivity depends on the vertical mixing scheme. With no vertical mixing or with weak, stability-dependent mixing, the mesoscale spectra are artificially amplified by low resolution: they are shallower and extend to larger scales than in the converged simulations. By contrast, vertical hyperviscosity with fixed grid-scale damping rate has the opposite effect: underresolved spectra are spuriously steepened. High-resolution spectra are converged except for the stability-dependent mixing case, which are damped by excessive mixing due to enhanced shear over a wide range of horizontal scales. It is shown that converged spectra require resolution of all vertical scales associated with the resolved horizontal structures: these include quasigeostrophic scales for large-scale motions with small Rossby number and the buoyancy scale for small-scale motions at large Rossby number. It is speculated that some model energy spectra may be contaminated by low vertical resolution, and it is recommended that vertical-resolution sensitivity tests always be performed.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council || RGPIN/386456-2015en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherAmerican Meteorological Societyen
dc.subjectCirculation/ Dynamicsen
dc.subjectMesoscale processesen
dc.subjectTurbulenceen
dc.subjectModels and modelingen
dc.subjectMesoscale modelsen
dc.subjectModel errorsen
dc.titleDependence of model energy spectra on vertical resolutionen
dc.typeArticleen
dcterms.bibliographicCitationWaite, M. L., 2016: Dependence of model energy spectra on vertical resolution. Mon. Wea. Rev., 144, 1407-1421en
uws.contributor.affiliation1Faculty of Mathematicsen
uws.contributor.affiliation2Applied Mathematicsen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten
uws.peerReviewStatusRevieweden
uws.scholarLevelFacultyen


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